Six years ago I bought a Sony MiniDV camcorder, which is still an a good working condition, and does what it is supposed to do. After initial euphoria of taping everything which moves for a couple of years, I kind of drifted away from home-made videography, moving towards home-made music production, so the camera was not used a lot.
A little over a year ago I finally upgraded our family entertainment center to a flat-screen TV, which made me understand how poor the quality of the standard definition home video actually is.
So the caressingly used camcorder is now used even less.
But—Dar's new show is coming up, and needs to be properly documented for many important reasons.
Preferably in a modern day video standard.
So I stumble upon this one:
Sony Webbie HD Camera MHS-CM1
Not only it costs about 1/6th of what I payed for my MiniDV cam, it is four times smaller, ten times lighter (no moving parts, duh) and records up to 5 hours in 1040 HD on a 16GB memory card.
So I grab one.
Did it yesterday, played with it for one evening, and made my conclusions.
The video is, of course, HD, but the resolution is not everything (I shot several clips, all in 1440x1040:30p, trying to get the cam to adapt to different light conditions. It's got some controls and settings, like backlight, low light, and so on, but the automatic is the one to go with). Any kind of movement in the frame, however, produced a nauseating blur of such magnitude, that the image would look actually worse then the one of a standard definition. When movement stops, the auto-focus kicks-in lasily, and adjusts the picture to acceptable sharpness—assuming that there is enough light. In low light conditions, the sharpness never comes.
And since there is no image stabilization, there is always motion in the frame, unless you are using a tripod (the screw socket is plastic, so be careful not to tighten it too much).
As frustrating as it is, it would be tolerable, considering the price (the thingy is CHEAP, I got mine for $180 at B&H, 16GB card was $75, all together with carrying case and taxes—under $300), I would even forget the mono sound, but there was another major minus for me.
CONTINUOUS RECORDING TIME IS LIMITED TO 25 MIN.
After that it stops recording, and you have to press the button again. If you are trying to record a continuous event, you end up with a several second gap, if you noticed that the camera stopped in time and pressed the button immediately.
Why is that, to prevent people from stealing movies in the theatre?
Needless to say, this morning puppy went back to the pound.
One can't afford cheap things, truly.
A little over a year ago I finally upgraded our family entertainment center to a flat-screen TV, which made me understand how poor the quality of the standard definition home video actually is.
So the caressingly used camcorder is now used even less.
But—Dar's new show is coming up, and needs to be properly documented for many important reasons.
Preferably in a modern day video standard.
So I stumble upon this one:
Sony Webbie HD Camera MHS-CM1
Not only it costs about 1/6th of what I payed for my MiniDV cam, it is four times smaller, ten times lighter (no moving parts, duh) and records up to 5 hours in 1040 HD on a 16GB memory card.
So I grab one.
Did it yesterday, played with it for one evening, and made my conclusions.
The video is, of course, HD, but the resolution is not everything (I shot several clips, all in 1440x1040:30p, trying to get the cam to adapt to different light conditions. It's got some controls and settings, like backlight, low light, and so on, but the automatic is the one to go with). Any kind of movement in the frame, however, produced a nauseating blur of such magnitude, that the image would look actually worse then the one of a standard definition. When movement stops, the auto-focus kicks-in lasily, and adjusts the picture to acceptable sharpness—assuming that there is enough light. In low light conditions, the sharpness never comes.
And since there is no image stabilization, there is always motion in the frame, unless you are using a tripod (the screw socket is plastic, so be careful not to tighten it too much).
As frustrating as it is, it would be tolerable, considering the price (the thingy is CHEAP, I got mine for $180 at B&H, 16GB card was $75, all together with carrying case and taxes—under $300), I would even forget the mono sound, but there was another major minus for me.
CONTINUOUS RECORDING TIME IS LIMITED TO 25 MIN.
After that it stops recording, and you have to press the button again. If you are trying to record a continuous event, you end up with a several second gap, if you noticed that the camera stopped in time and pressed the button immediately.
Why is that, to prevent people from stealing movies in the theatre?
Needless to say, this morning puppy went back to the pound.
One can't afford cheap things, truly.